Wednesday, November 14, 2012

{Kids Get Arty} Rauschenberg: Mixed Media Art

We have really enjoyed participating in Kids Get Arty: Exploring the Great Artists with Red Ted Art. Wild Thing loves to explore and to utilize items in unexpected ways, so I knew I wanted to draw inspiration from an artist who created Mixed Media Art or Found Object Art. I discovered the Texas Artist Robert Rauschenberg (I grew up in Texas, so him being a Texan was a bit of a bonus). While also a painter, many of his most famous pieces were his found object art sculptures, and I discovered some cool mixed media pieces that used photographs as well. These pieces, ultimate were the inspiration for the project I did with Wild Thing, a great project for Toddlers and Preschoolers. Here is the final product:

Before moving on with more on this project, I wanted to share our previous Arty Explorations:

Okay, back to the task at hand - Wild
Thing LOVES to take photos, so that is why I selected these two pieces by Rauschenberg to inspire our Kids Get Arty art project.

To recreate this type of work on a preschool level, I looked back through the many, many photos Wild Thing has taken both with his Fisher-Price camera and, more recently, with
my camera. I selected, primarily everyday objects,
like Rauschenberg.

I also had to include this photo he took of his brother, which is one of my favorites.

Since I knew we were painting over these photos, I just
printed them at home in black and white. Some did not turn out as well
as I had hoped, but we made it work. For painting, we used watercolors
because they allow for layering and for the look I was going for rather
than other types of paints that would not have any transparency to them.
To make it even more engaging and fun for Wild Thing, he helped with
cutting the photos out and he glued them on the thick paper himself. I
quite like the piece that we created. (No process photo, but here was our set up).

I highly recommend this art activity for any child that is really into photography. Let them look at some sample mixed media pieces that use photographs and then take them on a photography shooting spree as the first part of creating their own mixed media masterpieces.

The next Kids Get Arty link-up is January 16th - please join in the fun with Red Ted Art and head over there now to see what other creative art projects and artists were selected this month.

Oh - and now I am just going to brag a little bit because I am in love with and was crazy impressed by this photo of me that Wild Thing took all his own in the backyard the other day. I NEVER look even halfway decent in photos, so this made me happy - made me smile to think that this photo might be indicative of the way my son sees me. :)

Finally, Day 14: Grateful for trash - yep, trash.
Today, a neighbor had a Little Tikes comfortable car and Tonka FireT ruck sitting out next to their trash barrel. Score! #21DaysofGratitude.

2 comments:

Awe I love it! And I agree it is great for kids who love photography (don't they all) and it somehow makes their photo sessions means something and so valuable. Love your Art Activity and GREAT SHOT at the end :-)

Thank you for joining in with Kids Get Arty and making it so wonderful!